Many backgrounds, one table
We bring together people with different Russia-related backgrounds, experiences and interests — without asking everyone to arrive at the same conclusions.
A place to encounter Russia in all its complexity.
We are a volunteer-led Oxford community for people with different Russia-related backgrounds and interests — brought together by culture, ideas and honest conversation.
At Oxford
and beyond
30+ Events hosted
800+ Attendees and members
40+ Speakers and performers
4 Years at Oxford
We bring different experiences into the same room.
ONRS exists to foster a diverse, safe and inclusive community. We engage critically with history, culture and contemporary politics while making space for curiosity, disagreement and new connections.
A space made safe by honesty
Our events make room for difficult history, present-day realities and marginalised perspectives, with care for the people those conversations affect.
Connections beyond the room
We help students, researchers, artists, journalists and the wider Oxford community meet, exchange ideas and begin new collaborations.
What we do
Ideas are only the beginning.
Our programme moves between the intellectual, the cultural and the social — because a community needs all three.
Talks and conversations
Writers, researchers, journalists and cultural figures bring first-hand knowledge into open discussion.
Culture in many forms
Film screenings, concerts, readings and exhibitions offer ways into histories and ideas that a lecture alone cannot.
A community between events
Socials, dinners and collaborations make space for informal conversation — often where the most useful connections begin.
Built by its members. Open to everyone.
ONRS is a student-run organisation. Our committee members are unpaid volunteers, and revenue from memberships, tickets and donations goes back into the Society’s programme — from venue hire and artist fees to making events easier to discover and attend.
Meet the committeeOur partners